Art of CAROLYN LAVENDER, MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ, AND MARY SHINDELL

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When the mountain is completely installed, we make a decision. The three of us have video. Mary’s and my video show process. Carolyn’s is slightly different in that it is an actual work that can stand alone. Here it will sit on her wall along side her drawings and paintings.

We discuss the flow of activity with Marco and Tiffany and conclude – 3 videos are two too many for the space. My process videos and Mary’s are in the blog only. I’ve included numerous ones here already.

Below is Mary’s video titled There Is a Mountain. It represents South Mountain, located here in Phoenix. It begins with a line, followed by each layer of form and texture that make up the various digital drawings. You see the parts first, then the series of layers appear in the order in which they sit. You get a sense of how the mountain develops. It ends with a final line that clarifies everything. Mary notes the line took an entire day to construct.

I spent July and much of August working on a female and male pelvis girdle. Above is a black and white photo of what is a full color canvas tentatively titled Hers.

After the research and work on this series, I am more self-aware. My body – is my own. It’s that simple and that complex. With all that’s gone on in the political arena lately this little 13″ x 13″ study especially, feels so relevant.

You might also imagine that I am more aware that our Earth, like our body is incredible and deserves full respect. For me this set up of CREATURE, MAN, and NATURE has taken on deeper meaning. Take care – of the one body and our one world and the life inside, there is a connection and the balance is sacred.

…about the video (which is in experiment stage)
I enjoyed the HERS study and the abstraction which I lay out in the video below. The composition starts simple and basic, eventually the ground work disappears, but it never goes away. To read about HIS and access that video, click here. They’re both fairly short.

The soundtrack works well. There are some electric and wirey parts, if I could only show you how we made those sounds using a slinky. Sharing process… it’s not possible to share it all, but in bits, it informs, educates and maybe it amuses.

The initial proposal for this exhibit includes video. As I put this post together I realize I’m still not completely convinced video will be in the show itself. There’s going to be a lot of stimulation and I wonder now if it will add to the experience. It may. The blog includes it anyway.

I’ve shot footage since the start of this series, not exactly knowing what will become of it all. The goal is always that it be visually interesting and educational … filming the parts and then connecting them all to make one statement … the drawing , and or the video … both, all of it.

I put together something I like enough to post into YouTube. I’m sharing it today. And though I did get quality photographs of the work below, and I do show you close-ups of it in the video – the work is highly detailed and so in truth I think it’s one of those works you can only really appreciate in person. The video was always meant to run with the artwork nearby. So here, separated from the real thing, I wonder if it can only a tease. Maybe so. I learn from it all anyway.

Video synopsis:
The plan – to show only process. Friends comment they’d like to see artwork details. It begins with me drawing and then halfway through, it cuts to close-ups of the completed work (shown here above ) There’s about 4.5 minutes of each. At the start you hear the newscast that was live as I worked, something about Christians and Muslims. At the end you catch another newscast about a cat, serendipity. I added the later because there’s a cat in the work. And it’s This American Life, a Saturday afternoon favorite. I also pick up a lot of the natural studio noises, which I like.

The on purpose sound that fills most of the video I made with artist and friend Joe Willie Smith. We recorded it a few years ago at the college, where we both teach. I was hoping to create something that mimicked internal body noise. Or at least what I imagine such visceral sound is like. You hear heartbeat-like rhythm (fast, slow, abstracted). You also hear Joe Willie drinking water, gulps, movements, and touches of digestion process. The memory of us doing this is a good one. I also want to capture what I think of as electrical impulse(s), you know … brain and nerve activity. This is all based on Joe Willie’s and my imagination. We sat my paintings nearby for inspiration, while he and I moved about hitting and sliding tools across one of his multi-media sculptures. Does this make sense? Oh and there’s short, cool drumming – we both got caught up in.

I call the sound recording A Constant Vital Commotion. I callthe video and the artwork Nothing In Stasis. Here it is … life stuff …

One of the things we’re planning for the exhibit is video.
I’m playing with ideas. It’s all new.

A simple start using basic skills and it’s only a little over 2 minutes long. Who knows what can happen once I know what I’m doing. The practice video shows stages of a new work. It includes sound that I created with an artist friend.

Our stuff: a computer, several cameras, fiber optics, pencils, a small bronze animal, a medical replica of a heart, a 1904 medical dictionary, and a digital print, paper

Meet for lunch.
Everyone brings something from their studio to help keep the focus.

We discuss ideas, work, and space. And finally the title.

WORKS, simple and has a double meaning. But works.com isn’t available.

Earlier we’d come up with Formal and Informal.
Formal connects to the exhibition, the formal event. And Informal connects to the blog and all it’s informative and less formal nature. Maybe a combination of those words.

Before the afternoon is over I take a photo of our stuff.
I don’t plan to have the video going on my camera, but it’s on and I catch about 15 seconds before I realize.

Did we say explain the additional new media is video? Each one of us will create one, or a few. Beginning now apparently.